Browsing Posts published in January, 2008

Duncan Hunter just held a teleconference in which one of the questions was why he endorsed the Huckster – when the Huckster’s continuation in the presidential race will likely result in John McCain as the Republican nominee. The questioner also seemed to imply he’d like to see Hunter reconsider.

Hunter explained that Mitt Romney’s refusal to work against his former company’s – Bain Capital’s – involvement with the Chinese company Huawei Technologies, or even to answer questions about the association, made Romney a “non-starter” for him. (Hunter had publicly called on Romney to terminate a deal by which Huawei was to purchase a large stake in the American company 3com.)

Hunter explained that Huawei had installed telecom equipment in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and in Afghanistan for the Taliban, work that eventually would be used against U.S. armed forces.

Though he did not say so, the implication was that Romney and Huckabee were the only two Hunter would have considered endorsing at the time he dropped out.

Of course, Hunter was under no obligation to endorse anyone. So why endorse a guy whose record on illegal immigration was so antithetical to Hunter’s own supposedly strongly- held positions? My guess is Hunter has such strong antipathy to Mitt Romney that he wanted to help ensure he would not get the GOP nomination: Endorsing Huckabee would help ensure the Huckster would continue to leech support from Romney.

Undoubtedly, Hunter would rather see McCain in the White House than Romney. Though I supported Hunter, I think this was short sighted in light of what is going to happen within the Republican party if McCain is the nominee. Hunter in effect is saying he would rather see a Democrat in the White House.

UPDATE: A couple of other comments by Duncan Hunter were illuminating and should be reported in the interest of full disclosure: He noted that during one of the debates, Romney did not get the opportunity to answer a question Hunter posed about Bain Capital because the moderator changed the subject. He also said, with reference to Romney’s reported change to a more conservative position on abortion, “I could never understand beating a guy up because he comes over to your way of thinking.”

I am not sure these comments ameliorate what Hunter surely seemed to try to do to Romney with the Huckabee endorsement, but the latter comment would possibly explain why Hunter could endorse a formerly avid open borders guy like the Huckster. Maybe Huckabee just convinced him he’d had a change of heart.

Here is a great essay by Mark Levin on the importance of doing everything we can to help Mitt Romney towards the GOP nomination, the main reason being that John McCain would be an exceptionally poor choice as Republican nominee – because for one, he would likely lose, and two, that would be a good thing.

By desperately trying to drag Obama into the mud, St. William J. Clinton of Arkansas has finally managed a miracle. He has managed to offend the Democrats in the press. He has managed to offend the Democrats in the Democrat party. He has finally managed to knock the scales off their eyes. Obama is on his way to Damascus. Where was this Democrat discernment of the Clintonian penchant for lying and dirty politics 8, 12 and 16 years ago? Only G-d knows. Maybe over the past 12 years the brass knuckles have become tarnished. For instance, from the ‘California Yankee‘:

Obama said. “He continues to make statements that are not supported by the facts — whether it’s about my record of opposition to the war in Iraq or our approach to organizing in Las Vegas.”

The best of this is Obama sounded surprised. Obama is having an ongoing epiphany, as are his supporters, as are many in the party. Obama continues …

“This has become a habit, and one of the things that we’re going to have to do is to directly confront Bill Clinton when he’s making statements that are not factually accurate,” Obama said.

These and other factually challenged faux pas of Bubba and his wife sHrillary against Barak Obama have left conservatives gasping. We are gasping at the Democrats who are finally noticing the fact that not only is the emperor naked, he is glib about it.

With the glamor fast fading will this impact the Lady Shrill? Clinton got on the wrong side of a landslide in the South Carolina primary. She was beaten 2 to 1 by Obama 56% to 27% over the weekend. With FL coming in tomorrow, the question remains to be seen if there is some momentum for Obama from SC, and will FL matter as the Democrat party has stripped FL of its delegates. Clinton appears to think FL is relevant, as she has broken a pledge not to campaign there as noted at ‘AP news‘.

With a wink at the deal, Clinton carefully staged her arrival so she left her airplane with palm trees in the background for photographer.

Given the Democrat primaries assign delegates in a manner proportional to the vote, it will be interesting to see how long the primary campaign shall continue. The question is, “Will Hillary be able to continue to field Bill as her attack dog?” As noted in the ‘Politoco,‘ he is now coming under the scrutiny of his fellow Democrats, who are finally discerning his creativity with the facts. Bill may no longer be as effective …

Bill Clinton, in other words, botched a big one — at a moment when Hillary Clinton can afford it least.

… and there are many who are tired of and turned off by the former President:

Meanwhile, the exit polls also indicate Obama easily beat Clinton among those voters who decided in the last three days – when news reports heavily covered the former president’s heightened criticisms of Obama. Twenty percent of South Carolina Democrats made their decision in the last three days and 51 percent of them chose Obama, while only 21 percent picked Clinton.

If Bill needs to be sidelined, then Hillary must take the field to do her own dirty work. If so, will she also perform a glamor striptease? This is likely, as she never had the fawning admiration that Bill inspired in the party rank and file. Either way, at least she won’t be glib.

Pretty soon we will have the opportunity to show the nation how the Old Dominion feels about our future political leaders; that is to say who we would like to see represent us as president. Novel as it may seem, there is no designated party-affiliated criteria. You only need to go and determine which party you want to vote in. As a good little socialist, I am going to cast my ballot for the best Democratic candidate I feel will win the election in November. Ought to be fun. How about you?

“The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine,” Cochran said about McCain by phone. “He is erratic. He is hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me.”

McCain’s run-ins with other Republican senators are legendary…

I’m more concerned about McCain’s liberalism, frankly, than his temper. As the Captain notes, he does not evoke confidence regarding potential Supreme Court nominations – and if he ain’t good for that he ain’t good for much.